Suicide & Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs): Preventing Suicide through Collaborative Upstream Interventions
The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) study, led by CDC and Kaiser Permanente, was a large-scale, retrospective study of the relationship between childhood trauma and household challenges on lifetime health outcomes, including suicide attempts, adult depression, and substance abuse. In this webinar, Deb Stone, ScD, MSW, MPH, of the Division of Violence Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention described: the importance of comprehensive suicide prevention that includes a focus upstream on preventing suicide risk before it happens; ACEs as an important area of that focus, and examples of collaborative, evidence-based interventions to prevent early adversities. Ingrid Bou-Saada MA, MPH, Injury Prevention Program Consultant with the Injury & Violence Prevention Branch at the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Division of Public Health, and Elizabeth Cuervo Tilson, MD, MPH, State Health Director and Chief Medical Officer for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, presented on the path North Carolina is taking to use a multi-agency collaborative approach that links ACEs to state behavioral health priorities such as suicide prevention and to multi-disciplinary initiatives. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has provided leadership on a multi-agency collaboration connecting ACEs with state priorities in substance abuse prevention and the opioid epidemic and in the prevention of domestic violence, sexual assault, and suicide.